The widower of sexual assault campaigner Jill Saward has spoken of his horror that victims of serial rapist John Worboys were not told of his imminent release.

Worboys, a black cab taxi driver, was convicted in 2009 of 19 charges of drugging and sexually assaulting 12 women passengers and one of rape. However, the Metropolitan Police has said other women have come forward since his conviction and the true total number of victims may be as high as 100, making him Britain's most prolific sexual predator in modern times. 

Gavin Drake, speaking to Christian Today on the anniversary of his wife's death last year, described being with Jill, who was raped aged 21, when she was told one of her attackers was being released from jail.

'There are very few times I have seen Jill paralysed by fear. Literally paralysed.'

She was told of the release when a reporter from the BBC rang her to say they were repeating a programme about her case. One of the issues she went on to campaign on was to put concern for victims at the heart of the criminal justice system and ensure victims were told by police before the press.

But victims of Worboys were also not told about his forthcoming release, despite it being a policy of the Parole Board to do so.

'In 25 years, this is one of the things that is supposed to have changed,' Drake told Christian Today. 'The chair of the Parole Board [Professor Nick Hardwick] said he was "very concerned" that that had happened. He apologised for it and said it must have been distressing.

'But I have been with a victim when they are told their rapist is being released and I can say it is more than distressing.'

The fear of what her attacker would do to her when he was released forced Jill Saward to flee the country. Despite officers offering to install panic alarms and a direct line to the police in her home, the fear was so great she fled to America while a new home was arranged for her in the UK.

Drake said it was 'no comfort' whatsoever to Worboys' victims that he would remain under surveillance following his release and pointed to the case of Jonathan Vass, 30, who murdered his ex-girlfriend Jane Clough, 26, in a frenzied knife attack while on bail for raping her.

'The police have their systems to say "in cases of sexual violence this is what we will do". The whole thing with Worboys being allowed to attack more victims was because the police didn't follow their procedures.

'Here we have the parole board again not following their procedure. You have to ask the question, "What is the point in the criminal justice system having procedures if, when it comes to it with one of the most predatory sexual attack cases, they don't follow them?"'

Jill Saward died on January 5, 2017 after collapsing following a stroke on January 3. She had became known as the Ealing vicarage rape victim after becoming the first rape victim to waive her right to anonymity and become a campaigner on the issue.

Speaking of his grief at the time, Drake described being carried on an initial wave of adrenaline as he didn't sleep and barely ate while his wife was in intensive care before she died.

'There comes a point when the adrenaline runs out and the support, while it doesn't run out, it is not as upfront as it is at the time. That is understandable.

'Then you fall into a pit from which you can see that maybe there is a way out but you don't have the inclination to use it. You stay in bed and don't get up because there is nothing to get up for.'

Now more than £20,000 has been donated to continue his wife's work and a charity is being launched this year to work on behalf of victims of sexual violence.

Writing in a blog post Drake, a journalist, said 2017 was his 'own personal annus horribilis', but he was looking forward 'with a positive mind' and thanked friends, family and strangers for 'the love, the care, and the compassion' shown to him and his three sons.